The Great Leap Forwards TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGHS AND NEW SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES COULD HAVE A MAJOR PART TO PLAY IN FORGING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE. WORDS BY KEVIN GOPAL Fresh out of the shower and it’s time for Using plasma technology to convert methane Worsley, and there’s the possibility of factories the size of the daily health check. Sensors capture to hydrogen is a future goal for the team tabletops. “This is hugely important for the way that houses your vital signs and relay them to the local according to Whitehead: “All this feeds into and factories are formed.” health centre. Thirty seconds later the all alternative energy sources that are kinder on Worsley believes that the combination of IT,biotechnology clear comes through on a plasma screen the environment in terms of emission of and nanotechnology will be a fertile source of breakthroughs. in your bathroom - but if there had been greenhouse gases, with all the resulting climate Biotechnology offers the possibility of transforming drug problems, the right medicines would have change consequences. The hydrogen economy therapy from what he calls the “optimistic shotgun” approach been ordered, tailored specifically to your is a move from fossil fuels.” to one that is more closely targeted at the condition in genetic make-up. Professor Ian Miles, director of Policy Research question and tailored to individuals’ responses. Then it’s time to go to work. As operations in Engineering, Science and Technology (PREST) Healthcare advances also depend on technology to monitor manager of a large manufacturing firm you at Manchester University, distinguishes and record patients’ conditions and a revolutionary piece have huge responsibilities - even though between incremental innovations (which of hospital equipment has been developed in a partnership nanotechnology means your factory is sometimes increase the use of resources), led by Bolton Institute’s Technology Development Centre. so small that it sits on a table downstairs. radical ones based on new ways of doing The Pippa Breathing Monitor harnesses pyroelectronic things or new technical knowledge, and And if you do have to pop out and visit polymers (PEP) technology to create a device which can revolutionary ones, where the knowledge is clients, the car runs on hydrogen that has continuously monitor patient breathing and alert hospital so fundamental that it can be applied across been converted from methane or another staff in a medical emergency. arangeofsocialandeconomicactivities. greenhouse gas. He says: “Of the latter, we could see steam Ajointventurecompany,c-Lectmedical,hasbeencreated Predicting the major technological leaps that and electric power as examples, IT more between Bolton Institute and a local company, Smart Ideas will shape our future is notoriously fraught. recently. We are beginning to realise just how (rSi). Plans to market the sensor are now at an advanced stage The futurologists of the 1960s had us believe pervasive biotech is, and nano is just beginning and a distribution agreement has been signed with Viamed, that we would all be wearing unisex catsuits, to pop its head up. amedicalequipmentspecialist. eating gourmet meals in a pill and getting “My view is that the IT revolution still has a long All this research takes place in a context of growing public and around on souped-up jetskis. That future way to go. Bio and nano are newer, and thus media concern about the risks of science. Critics of GM foods, never happened. more unpredictable. They have applications among others, have suggested we ought to be keener to apply And in terms of sustainable development, well beyond health, food and materials areas. the precautionary principle - first do no harm - before further some argue that the future isn’t about For example, new energy systems might be development. What’s more, military and corporate control of technological breakthroughs anyway, it’s based on nano materials that mimic biological technology can give cause for concern, as can the potential about incremental improvements and systems' capturing of solar power or on GMO for abuse of everything from aircraft - as in the 9/11 attacks - social changes. crops that provide fuels or new materials to IT systems, to, in the future, genetic material. Research in the Northwest suggests that we We need to think seriously about ways of anticipating shouldn't dismiss the potential of the Great threats as well as talking up these real opportunities Leap Forward. Researchers at Manchester University, for example, are examining the use that act as much better solar cells, refrigerants Miles argues that the precautionary principle is very difficult of plasma technology to reform methane into or superconductors. Remediation of to apply to many innovations because their long-term hydrogen that can be used to power vehicles contaminated land may be achieved by implications are hard to assess and because the innovations and other devices. The reduced environmental GMOs or small robots.” “are themselves on the move, with incremental and radical impact of hydrogen as a source of power is change a fact of life”. The leap from commercialising already well-documented: the ability to make microtechnology to using nanotechnology “On the other hand, I see the benefits of further knowledge that hydrogen from greenhouse gases adds a is huge, but as Richard Worsley, director of to be so immense and commercially attractive that the whole new dimension of benefits. the Tomorrow Project (a charity investigating case for further developing the new technologies is Dr Christopher Whitehead of Manchester how people’s lives might look in 20 years), overwhelming,” says Miles. “We need to think seriously University’s Chemistry Department is part of points out, there is already a huge amount about ways of anticipating threats as well as talking up ateamworkingonplasma-basedmethods of investment going into the process of these real opportunities.” for cleaning diesel exhaust gases, tackling manipulating materials at a molecular level. And as Worsley says, controversially perhaps: “There will waste solvent streams and removing CFCs. Laptops the size of fingernails and portable always be risks in rolling out science. Too much precautionary His team has a plasma-based device for equipment and plant are in the offing says principle and we could have been afraid of electricity.” cleaning up air that is undergoing commercial trials and should be going to healthcare, domestic and commercial air purification markets within a year. 8 INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION: THE SUSTAINABLE SCIENCE EDITION ories the size of e way that houses IT,biotechnology ceofbreakthroughs. nsforming drug c shotgun” approach e condition in onses. hnology to monitor olutionary piece dinapartnership opment Centre. yroelectronic vice which can ndalerthospital has been created pany, Smart Ideas atanadvancedstage gned with Viamed, ofgrowingpublicand . Critics of GM foods, tobekeenertoapply arm - before further orporate control of s can the potential in the 9/11 attacks - terial. pating rtunities iple is very difficult eir long-term use the innovations mental and radical further knowledge ctive that the nologies is hink seriously as talking up aps: “There will much precautionary ofelectricity.” THE NEW WHITE SHIRTS 55 A NEW KIND OF CONSTRUCTION IS RESHAPING OUR SKYLINES AND REDEFINING THE MODERN HOME. GREEN BUILDING SCHEMES THAT BOAST ARGON-FILLED GLAZING, GREY WATER RECYCLING AND INTEGRATED RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS ARE BUSY SETTING A NEW BENCHMARK FOR BUILDING DESIGN. WORDS BY PHIL GRIFFIN building new benchmarks adopt renewable sources of energy,sort their waste, identify the chemistry and geography of the materials their homes are made from, and actively affect how developers and architects respond to glaringly obvious global bad practice. They will look for more sensitive building schemes. They are a niche market. In December 1999 Irwell Valley Housing Association launched by invitation an TaylorWoodrow is not best known for architectural competition for a pocket-site environmentally-friendly buildings. Nor, if it three miles south of Manchester city centre comes to that, is the architect Sir Terry in a suburb called Chorlton. Irwell Valley was Farrell. So the Green Building in Macintosh looking to build 21 shared ownership Village at Manchester’s newly designated apartments on the badly contaminated site to the 20 shared ownership. Effectively,it meant that we could Southern Gateway could be a revelation. of a 60-year-old petrol station. They took the ease our build costs, and put 27 parking spaces below ground, Certainly green is the colour that would have competition route because directors Phil which isn’t very green, but is secure.” suited the previous inhabitants of this place. Summers and Fiona McAuley were totally Between 1847 and 1877, it was a low-lying committed to regeneration through strong, The scheme was completed in 2002.The key to Chorlton sprawl of 200 or so dwellings marooned in a contemporary design linked to sustainability. Park is orientation and insulation. David Simister explains: bend of the River Medlock. It was home to They have always attempted to shake up the “Our major consideration was energy conservation and not some 4,000 people and was known as Little social housing sector.In 1997, Fiona was renewables.It seems to me that if the house is going to stand Ireland. It was a notorious slum. According to responsible for Rona Walk in Openshaw, the for 60 years, when you conserve energy it is